Review: Tea Art in Kuwait

July 2nd, 2009 § 1

teaforte

I was at Al-Muthana Bookstore the other day and decided to find the tea-forte reseller that was in the same mall. I was given directions and found the shop within minutes.

It’s a small place called “Tea Art” with almost everything at http://tea-forte.com/ available within arms reach. The staff was a bit bored and had I not known what I was looking for, I would have just walked out. They have a small bar where you can sit and try some tea. It is best you either go knowing what you want or with someone who knows how to pick the right tea for you.

There are so many types or teas to try, loose-leaved and tea-bagged. You can also create your own mix, if you want. Price ranges around 6KD for 500grams of loose-leaf tea. The tea sets are a bit expensive, almost double the internet price – and that wasn’t a shock in Kuwait.

They also carried EILONG tea wear and those were nice but not really worth the price at all. Parts of the set I bought changed color after the first wash.

Drink tea with your enemies:

Khede Kasra Arab Women Empowerment Program

April 22nd, 2009 § 2

It is interesting how the Arabic language is such a feminist language. Using the khasra accent, the words become feminine. This campaign invites people to “break the habit” in a simple, accessible way. There is a lot of word play and that’s why I love it so much.

Watch the English version of the ad:

OVERALL PROJECT GOAL

The project aims at introducing changes at the national level to the existing concepts, policies and approaches in addressing the needs of women as a disadvantaged and discriminated against entity.

“We generated awareness as, although this language’s subtlety is understandable by everyone, nobody had ever thought to use the Arabic language in such a manner, and people were very receptive,” says executive creative director Bechara Mouzannar.

The Khede Kasra campaign by Leo Burnett won 5 gold and 2 silver awards at the International Dubai Lynx Festival.

On another very differrent note, Kevin Rose (digg.com) and Jesse Jacobs (Samovarlife.com) put together a Tea Starter Kit for people that are interested in getting into or just trying out high end quality tea. In this video, you can watch and learn how to brew Ryokucha Green Tea, Maiden’s Ecstasy Pu-erh Tea and Samovar Masala Chai Black Tea Blend. link: http://samovarlife.com/kevin

Tea Starter Kit

If you are a tea drinker in Kuwait, be sure to check out The English Lounge at the Avenues (Phase II) or at the Sheraton Hotel.

Bayt Abdullah: My Life is Feelings

March 21st, 2009 § 3

I was at Caribou Coffee the other day and they had set up a table selling little bears. The title caught my attention since it didn’t look like the Caribou merchandise. Turns out, KACCH along with Caribou teamed up to sell these cute little bears for Bayt Abdallah Children’s Hospice in Kuwait (BACH).

Each bear costs 3.750KD and all proceeds are donated to KACCH.

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Also included inside the box is a small book for children living with serious illness. It was created by Karen Josephson, a ten year old girl who was being treated for leukemia. She would come into her psychologist’s office and speak through one of the bears to express her feeling and emotions. The bear became her companion for many months.

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This book is meant to help children open up and express their own feelings. There are a few pages with examples to read to the child and the remaining are left blank for him/her to fill in with their own feelings. There is an Arabic translation if you flip the pages in reverse.

To keep you posted with Bayt Abdullah Hospice, construction has already began in Shuwaikh, Kuwait and here are some pictures:
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Links:
Bayt Abdallah Children’s Hospice: www.kacch.org/home/bayt.htm
Kuwait Association for Child Care in Hospitals: www.kacch.org Tel: +965 2246-4723

The Women of ENIAC

March 8th, 2009 § 4

eniac
Two women wiring the right side of the ENIAC with a new program, in the “pre- von Neumann” days. “U.S. Army Photo” from the archives of the ARL Technical Library. Standing: Ester Gerston Crouching: Gloria Ruth Gorden

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was “the first purely electronic, Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems”. It was constructed during World War II at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wikipedia)

The six women of ENIAC are: Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.

Today is International Women’s Day and a very good day to remember and celebrate these women who were forgotten for thier achievements:

Although two women were given recognition at the conference, the rest weren’t even invited to the reception. But Kleiman’s ongoing quest to reveal the forgotten story of the six women has gotten the ball rolling on public awareness: A Wall Street Journal article was written about the women last year [in 1996], and has become a minor Net meme.  California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo has been working to name a day in honor of the ENIAC programmers, although her efforts were delayed whe. Congress stopped allowing commemorative days. And Kleiman herself is coordinating a broadcast-quality oral history with the ENIAC women, which will eventually be turned into a documentary.
source: peterlangston

Photos are taken from the U.S. Army Research Lab archive.

Read more about the women of ENIAC: http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/1997/eniac.php

Now, to take a break from nerdsville…


Natalija Gros from Jure Breceljnik on Vimeo.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~Mark Twain

The Idiot Savant

March 6th, 2009 § 2

idiot
a person of subnormal intelligence
savant
initiate: someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field

the idiot savant

link: 2ktshirts.com

The smartest people do the dumbest things – sometimes. I am so craving this shirt right now!

Where are you blogging from?

March 4th, 2009 § 4

GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. All you have to do is add the meta tags to your site’s which contain the coordinates of your location. For example, I’ve added this line and it has my website pinpointed to Kuwait Towers, Kuwait:

<meta name="ICBM" content=”029.38946, 048.00295”>

<meta name="DC.title" content=”Kuwait Towers”>

You don’t have to tell everyone exactly where you live, unless you want to be stalked. I think, more than anyone else, business owners would benefit from this. You can add yourself by following the instructions at: http://geourl.org/add.html

Temper of the Sufferer

March 1st, 2009 § 5

I thought this was very creative and decided to try it out after my cousin tagged me on Facebook. Her album is a big hit and mine is coming to an iTunes near you!

Random!

  1. Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
  2. Go to “Random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
  3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
  4. Use photoshop/paint or similar to put it all together.
  5. Post it with this text in the “caption” and TAG the friends you want to join in.

My results:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_C._T._Chao
  2. A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer. -Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719)
  3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tberga/3311378451/

Personally, I have found the quote to be very interesting since I was contemplating on the whole idea just the night before! Lo and behold, my new album…
my new album

Give it a shot and let’s see what you can come up with. I used picnik to put the image together, it is a really good free online photo editor.

FoxyProxy

February 28th, 2009 § 1

FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox’s limited proxying capabilities. It offers more features than SwitchProxy, ProxyButton, QuickProxy, xyzproxy, ProxyTex, TorButton, etc.

Get it here: http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2464

Girls in Tech – Kuwait

January 28th, 2009 § 14


I am very proud to announce the opening of a new chapter of Girls in Tech group, now in Kuwait!

Girls in Tech is a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. As young women with the capacity to inspire, we made it our personal desire and passion to create and sustain an organization that focuses on the collaboration, promotion, growth and success of women in the technology sector.

Created in February of 2007, “Girls in Tech” (GIT) was founded by Adriana Gascoigne. GIT and was born out of a need to provide a place for women to cultivate ideas around their careers and business concepts involving technology.

Girls in Tech aims to offer a variety of resources and tools for women to supplement and further enhance their professional careers and aspirations in technology. Some of these resources include, educational workshops and lectures, networking functions, round table discussions, conferences, social engagements, and recruitment events.

We’re really excited to be expanding to the Middle East to empower, educate and provide resources for women and girls of all ages to excel in their courses and careers within the tech sector.

You can join the Facebook group through this link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63720120481
The official website is: http://girlsintech.net and it is due to launch later next week (inshallah).

So ladies in technology, young or old, in Kuwait or anywhere in the Middle East, join us today!

Smart Women Crave Good Company

January 21st, 2009 § 10

I came across a new website, geekspeakr.com, that helps event organizers find technical women to speak at their events. It has profiles of women in various professional fields with details that include location and language proficiencies. I loved the idea and hope to see more female speakers in technical events. We have many talented ladies in Kuwait and in the Gulf, it would be nice to swap speakers, host more events and share the knowledge.

I hope people make the best of this service and not abuse it for other purposes.

Title inspired from this photo:

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